with Lafayette._] Conformably to the intelligence communicated by the Count de Barras, the Count de Grasse arrived in the Chesapeake late in August with twenty-eight ships of the line and several frigates.

At Cape Henry he found an officer despatched by Lafayette with full intelligence of the situation of the armies in Virginia.

Lord Cornwallis had collected his whole force at Yorktown and Gloucester Point, which he was fortifying assiduously; and the Marquis had taken a position on James River.
In consequence of this information, four ships of the line and several frigates were detached to block up the mouth of York River, and convey the land forces brought from the West Indies, under the command of the Marquis de St.Simon, up the James to join Lafayette, who, on receiving this reinforcement, took post at Williamsburg.

In the mean time, the fleet lay at anchor just within the capes.

On the 25th of August the Count de Barras[82] sailed from Newport for the Chesapeake.
[Footnote 82: This admiral was the senior of De Grasse, to whom the command of the expedition had been entrusted, and was therefore authorized by the minister of marine, to cruise on the coast of Newfoundland while his ships should join the grand fleet.